First Bite
by electricsoul20
Summary: Sookie gets her first bite of a vampire, as well as a taste of the dark side, when a chance meeting with a mysterious Eric one night at a bar potentially changes everything. Sookie is telepathic who hears everything, while Eric has a little problem of his own: He is deaf, and he is quickly proving to be irresistible to Sookie's heart. S/E, Lemons in later chapters.
1. The Vampire

**Hey there,**

**I wanted to try having a go at writing a vampire-Eric (with a little quirk of his own) and a tele****pathic Sookie story (exactly as in the show), just a break from my all-human story I'm writing. I promise to continue the other one, but sometimes you just need a break to dabble in other things. In this story, Sookie meets Eric before Bill. Hopefully this Sookie will be a lot more ballsy and independent. **

**Feel free to let me know if this captures you're interest, and if you would be interested in more. :-) I'm not sure if anyone will like it, but I enjoyed writing it anyway. Thanks for reading, if you do **

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_**First Bite**_

_**Chapter One**_

I was in a foul mood tonight, looking for a place to unwind. So with relaxing as my main intention for the evening, I got changed out of my work uniform and went downtown to the one bar we had in Bon Temps, other than Merlotte's Bar & Grill, which was where I worked on a daily basis. I had dressed up in one of my favourite dresses and a nice pair of heels that complimented it well. It was funny how getting yourself dressed up all girly and putting in some effort into your appearance can really put a spark in your energy. I ordered myself my usual drink, a gin & tonic, and settled myself in a stool at the bar. It was also a treat getting served, and not being the server who served people. There was nothing nicer than feeling spoiled.

The bartender brought me my gin & tonic and I took a sip.

The tension in my body immediately began to dissipate as the effects of the alcohol seeped its way into my system. It was just the perfect drink. The gin wasn't strong, overpowering the soda water. With a little drink in my system, too, I also found that it wasn't as difficult as it usually was to put my mental guard up. Being telepathic and hearing people's thoughts can really be a bummer. I could hear thoughts left, right, and centre in the bar. Doing something I usually did, I tried to gauge which area of the bar was most voracious. I looked up and around the bar, just taking in my surroundings as well as who was in here tonight. There was this odd, peaceful silence radiating from the left of the bar; I could still hear some thoughts, yes. But there was one focal point where everything was dead. Some people sat in small, comfortable groups tonight, and then, there was... some people alone, exactly like me, needing a place like this to come to after a difficult day. There were several seating areas made up of plush chairs and leather seats and a soft light illuminated the room from warm coloured lamps. It was definitely a lot more extravagant than Merlotte's was, in the decorating department.

Picking up my glass and taking another sip, I glanced around again, taking everybody in. Some people were good-looking... some were not. Some men were dressed in their best expensive suit and ties, and some of the women were looking very fashionable. Most of the people here were probably rich. I know it was a presumptuous observation to make, but it was obvious. When I looked at the far end of the bar, trying to work out where that silence came from, it was then that I saw him.

Sitting in a darkened corner was possibly the most attractive man I had ever seen in my entire life. And I had seen quite a few.

He was tall and appeared to be lean and muscular. It was hard to tell, though, because he was wearing a tailored black suit. He was also responsible for the small wave of silence I was getting. The striking contrast between his black jacket, shirt, and trousers and the paleness of his skin and handsome face was captivating. He had full lips, really full lips, the kind of ones you dreamed about kissing, as cliché as that sounded. I couldn't make out the color of his eyes, because he was preoccupied with staring at the illuminated screen of the Blackberry he was holding. He had light blonde hair that was combed back, slick at the sides, and neat.

I had the sudden tempting urge to go introduce myself to him, and get chatting away. My face flushed as that thought ran through my mind. It took me a belated moment to realize I was just ogling him like he was a mannequin to stare at. I hated people staring at me, it wasn't polite, so abashedly, I went to shift back in the stool I was sitting in to look back at the bar. Just as I was preparing myself to, it happened.

His eyes looked right at me, quick as a snake slithering through grass and striking without preamble. The eye contact was intense and, for the life of me, I couldn't understand why. I looked off in another direction, before looking his way again.

He was still staring. I was feeling sort of... shy. Or coy maybe would have been the apt word, and I hardly ever was shy or coy in front of anyone. It was just the effect he had on me, I was guessing. I felt an uncontrollable blush spread from my face, neck, down to my breasts, as his eyes roamed over the dress I was wearing, as well as my heels. I had experienced many men looking at me in that light at work and due to hearing their thoughts combined with the look, it bothered me because they were thinking some pretty dirty things.

Since I couldn't hear a slither of this man's thoughts, surprisingly, him looking at me lasciviously didn't concern me one bit. No, all it did was flatter me on some level.

I caught him licking his lips, and I saw two long fangs glistening under his top lip when he parted them with his tongue. He was a vampire. It pretty much motivated me more seriously into not staring at him fixedly the way I was. With more easiness, I turned in my seat and swallowed a heady mouthful of my gin & tonic. I noticed my hand shaking as I pressed my lips over the rim of my glass.

Vampire's had come out of the coffin two years ago. I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting one yet, but I sure as hell had wanted to. There was just something intriguing about the unknown. I didn't know much at all about vampire's, aside from them drinking the synthetic blood to sustain them nutritionally, and that was about it. The government had put up a big stink about vampire's feeding on human's when they came out. So that was why they raced to make a synthetic blood that would make vampire's feeding on human's not so much of a necessity to sustain their life-force.

_Come to think of it..._

I turned back into his direction quickly, hoping to see whether he was drinking his own little manmade sustenance. And he was; He had a martini glass set out in front of him, half-filled with red, gloopy liquid. Maybe if I had picked up on that beforehand, it would have occurred to me sooner just what was so fascinating about the gorgeous man. Evidently vampire's thoughts I could not hear. I wondered why; Was it because they had no thoughts? Were they really that devoid of any human likeness?

I was staring again, and he was staring right back. It was even more dangerous to stare at somebody like him, I knew, because he was a vampire, he was stronger than the average man. I didn't want him to get the wrong impression, assuming I wanted him to come over and let him help himself to some of my blood, so I quickly turned away again. I was now completely mortified I had been caught ogling him. Just as I drained my glass and was about to put it down on the counter, throw some money down on it as well as enough for a generous tip, I felt somebody touch my back. It startled me so much that my elbow knocked my empty glass over loudly and the last, meagre remnants of my drink spilled over the counter's edge. I felt it spilling onto my dress and soaking straight through to my pantyhose.

I yipped, because the drink was freezing on my skin.

"Yikes, I'm so sorry, honey," a masculine voice said from behind me. "I didn't mean to startle you. Let me get you another one, baby."

I turned in the stool to look at the man. He appeared to be in his late forties, and his hairline was receding. He had a big, shiny bald patch. He was staring down at me. His hand was also still on my back, and when people tended to touch me, it made their thoughts all the more loud. It was almost as if his thoughts were being thrown at me through a microphone, and it made me a billion times more uncomfortable. I guess he sensed my discomfort, because he quickly pulled away.

"No, thank you. I was just getting ready to be on my way," I managed to get out, as evenly as I possibly could.

"Sorry about your dress."

Before I could comprehend what he was doing, he reached over me to grab a napkin and then his hand started pressing into my dress, give or take a few inches from my crotch area. Good gravy, that was a bold move. I was enraged that the jackass presumed he could touch me.

"Please, take your hand off my thigh," I said in a forced tone.

"Calm down, lady," he said, laughing nervously. "I'm just trying to clean up the mess I've made."

"Please, you're making more of a mess, buster. I can handle it myself."

His thoughts were getting louder and louder by the second, as he kept on mopping up my dress. His thoughts were suitable for a porno movie, and it was the final straw for me. I just wanted to leave the embarrassment of the evening behind, get on home, strip off into my pyjamas, and relax. I tried to stand up from the stool, and in my attempt to be swift, I accidentally toppled into the man.

"Goddamnit," I cursed, a little louder than I had meant to.

Couldn't I just escape with a shred of my dignity? I could feel people in the bar watching us, and I didn't want to be made a public spectacle. I grabbed my hand bag, reached in quickly to get some money out, when again, the man had the gall to touch me.

"Let me get that, honey," he said. "It's the least I can do."

I was about to protest again. To be honest, this guy was really beginning to get up my craw. Before I was able to convey that sentiment, which I was almost fired and ready to do, I heard another voice from behind us.

"It would be the very least you could do. But. The. Woman. Said. No."

His voice was velvet. Velvet and silk, and any other ridiculously soft, beautiful thing you could imagine. Velvet, injected with menace. I was mesmerized by it momentarily. I knew it was him, and I didn't need to turn around to look. The glorious silence engulfed me. I looked over at him and met his gaze. It was just as intense as before. The fangs were also quite the sight to behold up front and personal, as well. I was holding my breath.

The other man immediately dropped his hand from my shoulder and said, "I wouldn't bother, vamp. She might be hot, but she's a total stuck up bitch!"

Just like that, he turned to walk away, leaving me a simmering, startled mess. The vampire's blue eyes darkened and flashed with what appeared to me as fury. I couldn't really decide what color his eyes were; A bluish-green seemed a fair estimation, though. His hands fisted at his sides. The intense reaction was a little unsettling. I didn't want to cause anymore trouble.

With a shaky voice, I pleaded, "Please, just let it go. I'm fine. I'm capable of handling myself."

Something seemed to register on his face, though I'm not certain what it was. His fangs lengthened too, with a funny little sound. I didn't know what that meant for him, but it was strange. He took in a deep breath, and I saw him relax. Thankful that the unpleasantness was over and well behind me now, I placed my money on the counter. I turned to face him... to give him my thanks. Before the words could form on my tongue, he said, while looking directly at my lips, "Are you alright?"

"Uh, ye... yeah," I managed to say.

I couldn't remember what I was going to say. It was all too much with him standing closely by.

_Come on, Sook! You can form a complete sentence usually without stuttering! What the hell is wrong with you?_

And then I finally remembered the words that had escaped me momentarily.

"Thank you," I said, and I really meant it. "I could have handled myself, though," I added hastily, because I didn't want any man thinking I was this damsel in distress needing to be rescued. "I'm used to it. I work at a bar myself, where this happens all the time. Thanks, though."

"You're welcome," he said, nodding. "And I'm sure you can handle just about anything."

I didn't know what to say to him then, because now I wasn't only distracted by his lovely voice, but the fangs. I had never seen anything like them in my entire life, but something told me it was incredibly rude to stare pointedly at them.

"I really should be getting home," I managed nervously.

"Are you sure you're okay, Miss...?" he asked, deliberately letting it linger on. He was obviously hoping for a name-drop.

"Sookie. My name is Sookie," I told him. "And yep, I'm fine. Really."

His eyes grew intense again, and I had to break the stare.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sookie. I'm Eric." I put my handbag over my shoulder, still intent on making my escape. He seemed to read my body language and politely stepped to the side, before asking me, "May I walk you out to your car?"

I wasn't expecting that from him, and honestly, I wasn't exactly comfortable with some random vampire I didn't know making that kind of gesture. Besides, hadn't I just made it very clear on him that I was perfectly capable handling myself?

"That won't be necessary, Eric. I'm sure I can manage. My car isn't that far away."

He smiled down at me, showing fang, and it made my pulse quicken. They truly were wonderful.

"I believe I have already agreed tonight that you are entirely capable. But if it makes you feel any better, I wouldn't be doing it for you. I would be doing it for myself. I wish to leave also."

I allowed his words to sink and reasoned with myself that if he was intending to leave as well, then he wouldn't be going too much out of his own way. As if he knew it would make it easier for me, he started making his way slowly to the door. I took my keys out of the side pocket of my handbag- for just in case, because you never really know with vampire's- and then I slowly followed suit. I walked outside into the parking lot and the air that hit me felt marvellous on my flushed skin. I made my way to my car briskly. I had parked it near the front of the lot, close to the bar.

"Nice dress," I heard Eric say, and when I turned to look back at him, he was smiling that same smile again. The fangs were gone now, however. And, just like before, my pulse quickened.

"Thanks," I said, smiling back at him; Happy somebody had complimented me over my efforts tonight in looking good. And I had loved this dress as well.

"The color suits you well."

I didn't really know how he could see me that clearly in the dark, but I felt myself redden nonetheless.

"And now, it suits you even more," he added quietly.

I was slightly taken aback at his words. All right, well, more than slightly. I sure couldn't see him that well in the dark. He had obviously seen me blushing, though. Or maybe he smelled it? Maybe he smelled the blood rushing to my face?

_Okay, mixed feelings on that..._

"I really should be going," I said quickly, making myself act responsibly. I unlocked the door to my car with my keys, and before I knew it, the vampire leaned forward, maintaining eye contact with me the whole time, and opened the unlocked door to my car for me. It took me a little while to process that. I wasn't used to men being so polite and chivalrous with me.

"It's been a pleasure," he said, his voice soft as a whisper. "Have a safe drive home. Goodnight."

I sat quickly in the car, placing my handbag down on the passenger's seat.

"Goodnight, Eric. Thanks again." It was more than a little sigh, as I looked up at him, while he stood there.

"No, thank_ you_."

I could have sat there all night, listening to all the confusing things he was telling me. But fortunately, my good side won out, and he politely shut the door on me and stepped away from the car.

I turned the key in the ignition and began to pull away. I chided myself sternly. I should have been worried. I shouldn't have let a vampire walk me out to my car in the pitch-black dark. If he hadn't been so nice, imagine what he could have been capable of doing to me? I should have been suspicious of his motives... but I wasn't. All those nagging feelings of self-preservation didn't hit me. I felt utterly relaxed in his company (well, nervous also) because I couldn't hear his thoughts.

I saw Eric the Vampire in my rear-view mirror, watching me drive out of sight, and the thought of not seeing him ever again, both relieved and disappointed me at the same time.


	2. A Gift from A Secret Admirer

**Hey guys,**

**I want to thank you all so much for your response. It amazed me :-) You guy's are the best; So lovely and nice. Hoping you enjoy this one! Next chapter, Sookie will go discovering and run into Eric again. Also, this Eric will be a bit different than True Blood's Eric. He has a little 'disability' of his own, which will be revealed next chapter. Hope you enjoy. Thanks so much!**

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**Chapter Two**

Thirty minutes later, I walked through the front door of my Grandmother's house, finally feeling able to fully relax for what seemed the first time during the night. I kicked off my heels and bent down to pick them up before padding my way into the kitchen. I put my heels down in the spot where we usually put all our shoes. My Grandmother, Adele, was still wide-awake, sitting at the polished oak round table, engrossed in reading one of her supernatural romance novels. My Grandmother was just as curious as I was about the undead, so I knew she would have been delighted over my experience tonight with a vampire. Gran straightened up in the chair and closed her book gently to give me her attention as I took off my hand bag and plopped it down on the table. She pushed off her reading glasses and folded them out carefully on the book in front of her.

"How was your night?" she asked, with interest.

"It was pretty exciting, Gran," I told her, feeling myself beaming with a bright and big smile as I thought over the evening. "Guess what happened tonight at the Mustard Pot?" The Mustard Pot was the name of the bar I usually went to, sometimes nightly as a break from Merlotte's. It was nice to have a place to occasionally unwind at and get dressed up for. I usually didn't get to go out much with friends; They had their own lives to attend to. Sometimes I thought I enjoyed the time by myself, though.

"What happened tonight?" Gran asked, on pins and needles. "Do you finally have a date?"

I felt my smile wane a bit over that; Gran was heavily invested in my dating life- or more aptly, lack thereof. I didn't have much time for dating. It wasn't that I didn't want to date anybody, it was more like it was difficult to find the right person for me. I have had my little disability- as I like to often refer to my telepathy skills, as exactly that- ever since I can remember, and it wasn't easy to find somebody in town who was willing enough to dare date somebody who was known to be a little different from the norm. I suppose because people knew I could often hear their thoughts, it turned them off getting too close.

"No, Gran. I don't have a date," I told her, and I noticed it made her a little bit deflated. "But something far more interesting happened. There was a vampire in the bar there tonight, and he actually was so polite that he walked me out to my car in the lot!"

Just as I hoped, that little tit-bit of information brought Gran's spirits up. Her eyes widened, and she looked immediately joyful. "Oh, a vampire?" she gasped. "A vampire, really? What was he like?"

Surmising what the Vampire Eric was like in one sentence really was rather hard. It took me a good moment to find the satisfactory words to explain. "Hmmm. Well, he was different," I answered hesitantly, after a few moments. "He was above and beyond what I had expected a vampire to be like. He didn't seem blood-thirsty or sadistic at all. No, he was rather... polite and sweet. Oh, and he had his fangs out practically every minute I talked to him!"

"Oh, what did they look like? Were they scary?"

I was very pleased I had somebody to share my enthusiasm with. "Not really, Gran. I wouldn't say they were scary. It was more like that they were... _interesting_ to_ look_ at. They looked real sharp!"

"So, you liked him?" Gran asked cheerfully.

I felt my face flush. She was asking me difficult questions tonight. "I did," I admitted nervously. "I liked him very much. He was very attractive, and he acted like a gentleman, too."

"Well, that's always nice."

I knew Gran wanted to hear more, but I found myself too tired for it. Instead, I promised to tell her more in the morning. I kissed Gran goodnight, and went upstairs to my bedroom.

I know it was probably funny; I still lived with Grandmother, at the age of twenty-three. I also hadn't even had a proper boyfriend yet, nor had I ever lost my virginity. But in my defence, it was hard as telepathic. Gran had taken me and my older brother Jason in, when our parent's died when we were younger. The last conversation I ever had with my mother physically scarred me; She found it hard to be accepting of her daughter, when she knew she was different. I guess she just wanted me to have a normal life, like most parent's surely wanted for their children. Whether it was my mother's intentions or not, she used to make me feel guilty and unnatural, due to my ability. She had always wanted me to keep it to myself, so that was what I tried to often do, as much as humanly possible. The only people who knew about my disability was my Grandmother, my brother, and my boss at work, Sam.

They were the only three people I felt I could trust, and they accepted me no matter what.

I didn't like people knowing about it. Some people sense that there is something wrong with me, but I usually try to keep it hidden. It wasn't easy work, though.

I found myself thinking of the Vampire Eric as I got ready for bed. The way he had looked at me wouldn't seem to escape my mind. I had rather enjoyed the way he had looked at me, with high concentration and intensity, as if he was really trying to work me out and had been determined in doing so. It was especially noticeable tonight when I talked to him, those few instances I had; I had noticed his eyes would really take in the movement of my lips, a bit like I had sent him off into a trance or something. Also, the silence he had presented me while being around him mentally really was a life-saving thing, especially as a girl who had spent most of her life surrounded by waves of thought. I had almost started to forget what silence felt like, until his had refreshed my memory. As I brushed out my hair, the thoughts of the vampire still wouldn't seem to leave me. I hadn't ever really felt that attracted to a man before, off the bat. There was just something about the Vampire Eric that I had found instantaneously attractive. Maybe it's the appeal of the unknown and the potentially dangerous that did it to me?

Even when I climbed into bed and buried myself underneath the covers, thoughts of him refused to leave me.

I wrapped my arms around my pillow, snuggling closely into it. And there, in the quiet darkness of my room, my mind began to wonder even more. How nice it would have been to finally have a man to hold in the night, and not a lousy pillow. How nice it would be to meet a fine, handsome gentleman that could sweep me off my feet. I wasn't desperate, but sometimes I did get lonely from time to time. My eyelids began to grow heavy and I was starting to drift off into the land of sleep. The last thing I saw, was the Vampire Eric's eyes, before dream-land swept me away.

I was interrupted the next morning by my Grandmother knocking on my bedroom door. She let herself in and groggily, I opened my eyes to peer up at her. I found her standing over my bed, holding a box in her hands. "Look, this came for you," she told me excitedly. "I found it on the doorstep."

I sat up slowly against the headboard, trying to fight my urge to fall back asleep. The cardboard box was moderately sized, and when Gran handed it to me, I noticed it was reasonably light, whatever was contained inside it. Gran waited around eagerly to see what my surprise was. I was still half-asleep to really take anything in coherently. I lifted the lid and looked inside.

Inside was a neatly folded, ruffled scarf; A deep, plum-red in color. Attached to the woollen fibres at the end were little shells. It was beautiful.

But when I looked inside for any note from the sender, I didn't find one. I did find a small business card, though, hidden at the bottom of the cardboard box under the gorgeous scarf, about the width of my index finger and colored in a bold red. The small writing on it was printed in black, cursive lettering. All it said, was 'Fangtasia'. I didn't know much about Fangtasia, but what I did know was that it was a tourists bar in the Shreveport area catering to vampire's. It was also a popular hot-spot for tourists who wanted to mingle with vampires. It was pretty much all I knew, as far as the bar went. Could it have been possible that somebody linked to that bar had given me the scarf?

**Should Sookie go to Fangtasia and investigate who the mystery sender is? Or should she let him sweat it a bit?**


	3. An Accidental Kiss

**Hey guys, thanks so much for being so kind and nice. It means the world that you seem interested in this story.**

**Also, I apologize for any mistakes; I don't have a Beta, so most mistakes are my own and I take full responsibility. I do try to edit and correct as much as possible before updating, but I do miss a few, so sorry! :-)**

**Chapter Three**

I figured there was a correlation between the sender who gave me the scarf, and that vampire bar. So that was why I was intending to head out to the bar to discover who the mysterious sender was the instance I arrived home from my shift at Merlotte's next evening. I was a bit nervous about it, because I hadn't been to the bar before. But since it was fairly popular for tourists (namely ones with pulses and beating hearts), it had to be safe for humans, right?

"Where you going?" Jason asked curiously, while I was getting ready.

I thought about not telling him the truth. But I decided honesty was best. "To that bar in Shreveport," I explained, slowly and cautiously. "That vampire bar called Fangtasia." Jason wasn't very enthusiastic, unlike myself and Gran, when vampire's had announced themselves into existence on live television. He was often verbal on his dislike of them, to whoever would care to listen.

Exactly as I was expecting my brother's reaction to be, his mouth flopped open in astonishment. "You're heading off to Fangtasia, Sook? Really? _You_?" He looked me over with some disbelief.

"I am. Why is that such a shock to you?"

"I don't know, it just is." He gave out a short, unnerved laugh. "I don't think it's right. You're just not the type to get involved with vampire's, sis."

"How would you know that I'm not the type?" I asked him, a little offended.

"Because I've seen the type of girls that are interested in vampire's, sis. You don't look like one of them. Them women who are fangbangers, they're just...cheap-looking. Not like you, who is so... innocent."

I guess it was mostly a shock to Jason because I've always been known as innocent Sookie Stackhouse, the girl who never drinks or does wild things. Even in college, I was never the one to go to late night parties. It just held no interest to me, and especially due to my telepathy, crowded places I would have prefered to avoid at all costs. I had just prefered to study and keep up my grades, like a good girl. I was real proud of myself for finishing my education; Not a lot of people had. It was a huge accomplishment, one I felt proud of myself for often.

"Jason, it isn't like I'm going to let a vampire feed on me," I told him seriously. "You know I'm not like that."

Still, Jason didn't look too convinced.

I put on one of my favorite dresses, and wrapped the plum-red scarf over it. It didn't clash with the color of my dress fortunately; My dress was a halter neck, a soft yellow. The scarf looked just fine wrapped over my neck combined with it. I put my hair up into a loose bun, and combed my fringe back over my forehead. I used two pretty floral hair clips to tack it into place, then doused my hair in hair spray to keep it neat and free of any fuzz. To top it all off, I put on some make-up and some shiny clear lip gloss. Then, as far as I was concerned, I was good enough to go. I decided on not wearing heels tonight, since my feet were already hurting from work. I put on some ankle-strap shoes with a small inch heel.

The ride to Shreveport was slow and peaceful. Although I felt nervous, playing a few tapes in the car helped to relax me on the drive over. I hadn't been to Fangtasia before, but the bright jazzy neon light shining out front was very easy to see. There were a few spaces left in the parking lot and I stole one. There was a line of people waiting to head inside, and a woman was doing the rounds on checking I.D's. Instantly I knew she was a vampire, mainly because I couldn't hear her thoughts. Also, her complexion was pretty vampy. When my turn came up, she asked me for my I.D, which I laughed at, because no one had ever asked me to show mine before. I got it out of my purse, and handed it carefully to the woman. She looked it over, very briskly. She was wearing a very pretty red dress that contrasted eerily with her chalky pale complexion. Her hair was as light as mine, longer and straighter, though I couldn't tell if she was naturally blonde. She cast a look down at the scarf I had wrapped around my neck (or maybe it was my boobs she was looking at? Hard to tell, really), before she handed me back my I.D.

Since we were both women, I thought talking to her would be easy. I assumed she would know who sent me the scarf. At least, I was hoping she did.

"Excuse me," I started, battling to keep the good-natured smile on my face. She was pretty daunting. "But I received this scarf as a gift from somebody, and I'm not sure who. But they also gave me a business card to this bar. Do you have any idea's on who it would be?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" she said, her voice sweet and full of implication. All she did was wave me into the bar with her hand, which put a damper on my spirits. She hadn't revealed anything to me at all.

The instance I got inside the busy hallway, music hit me. Blue Oyster Cult's Burning for You was playing. I followed a woman and her boyfriend down the short entrance, and then the hallway opened up into a bigger, spacious area. I wasn't entirely sure what I was expecting. The walls in the small hallway had been covered in pictures of vampire's in movies; Bela Lugosi, to Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt. Before I pushed my way into the main area, I spotted a picture of Kiefer Sutherland in the Lost Boys, too. The lighting was dim in the main room, and there was a dance-floor filled with a group of people dancing. I found it difficult to tell who was a vampire, and who wasn't, just like me. I looked around the room, feeling a mixture of both awe and distaste. The entire room was red. The walls were painted red and covered in more framed pictures of vampire's and vampirish things to add to the atmosphere, the windows were draped in red velvet curtains, the tables and booths were even red.

As I glimpsed the bartender working this evening, I could instantly tell he was a vampire, with no doubts about it. His fangs were out while he served a woman in a slutty little leather number, and his hair was dark and long. He was intimidating, I thought.

Since I didn't know what to do with myself, I approached the bar.

The vampire bartender was in front of me within the minute. Up close, he looked even scarier. His eyes were pitch dark, and his hair was even darker. The whites of his eyes stood out as he stared at me. He didn't even blink.

"Uh, hello," I said nervously, trying not to flinch. "I'm looking for somebody who sent me this scarf." Just to make it more clear on him, I played with the little shells attached to the scarf with my fingers. "They didn't say their name, but they supplied me a business card, which led me to here. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

He looked at me consideringly. Then he lifted a crooked finger with a bitten down nail and pointed behind my shoulder. "Over there," he told me, and I noticed he had a bit of a lisp while he spoke; Probably due to his fangs. "Straight to your left. Sit where the light hits you most."

I was stunned by that recommendation. Why would I need to sit in the light? I smiled at the bartender thankfully, then turned on my search to find who the sender was of my gorgeous scarf.

Taking in a deep breath, I looked around me again. As I pushed my way through a crowd of people, trying to remember where the bartender had pointed out his directions, I suddenly realized, and I felt my stomach drop. A vampire was sitting in a chair away from everybody else in the bar. _Or maybe it wasn't intentional? Maybe people in here actually felt too frightened to approach him?_

I didn't see the vampire clearly until I got halfway towards where he was sitting on a curved stage. The vampire had his legs stretched out in front of him, resting one large boot on top of the other, while his hands clamped down on the armrests of the chair he was perched in. He was wearing dark denim jeans, and what looked like a leather vest on top. The vest was pulled open at the chest area, showing off a whole lot immaculate pectoral muscle in a delicious way, but a few threads of string held it in place. After a full scan of his body, I finally brought my eyes up to his face. I discovered he was looking right at me. My heart did a funny little somersault.

It was the very same vampire I had met that night; The one that had so courteously helped me out, and had walked me to my car in the parking lot.

The Vampire Eric. And he looked just as handsome as I remembered.

_Was this just a funny little coincidence? Or something else?_

Lifting his hand off the armrest, he made a kooky finger gesture at me, with his index and middle finger. It seemed a _come hither now_ gesture.

I swallowed dryly, trying to regain use of my tongue, before I stepped up the stage towards him. I was incredibly nervous, and no doubt, he noticed it himself.

Instead of making me stand, much to my surprise, he stood from his chair and beckoned for me to sit in it instead. So, quietly, I did. I sat down in his chair, crossing my legs. The chair was unbelievably soft and cushioned on my tush just perfectly. He was a gentleman, clearly.

"Thank you," I told him, feeling a little spooked when he strode over to the light near the center of the stage. I was blinded for a few seconds, when he turned the light on me. But then the painful whiteness cleared until I saw his face again standing over me. How strange.

Our eyes met for a few minutes, and... I couldn't recall how to breathe. Somehow he hadn't looked as intimidating as he did now, in comparison to when we had met an evening ago. I also seemed to have forgotten how tall he had been. Now, he looked very much like the vampire he was. It was probably because tonight he was wearing clothes that emphasized his vampire ways, I suppose.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, and his gaze was just as intense as it was an evening ago, too.

"Actually, I received this scarf in the morning," I told him, working hard to maintain a level of confidence. "I wasn't sure who the sender was, but they left a business card. Long story short, that business card lead me here tonight. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

He chuckled at that question and I grew embarrassed. I hadn't said anything funny.

"I assumed it was obvious who the sender was. Clearly not."

"Do you know who sent me it, then?" I asked him hopefully. I just wanted to know and get it over with, so I knew who to thank for it.

"Well, it was me. In leaving a business card along with it, I had hoped you would come along to visit my bar. It has turned out evidently that my plan has succeeded and it has resulted in me seeing you again."

I looked him over carefully, trying to work out whether he was being serious. There was nothing in his expression that told me otherwise, and it flattered and confused me all in equal measure. _Why would he want the chance to see me again? What was so special about me on our last encounter that had made him want to see me again?_

"Oh, well. I guess I've been incredibly foolish about this, haven't I?" I forced a laugh to hide my embarrassment. His eyes studied my lips again. "I hadn't even thought once that it might have been you that had sent it. How very nice of you. Thank you, it's sweet of you. The scarf is beautiful." I felt a sudden intense nagging sensation within me for a subject change; I was flustered big time over the revelation that he had been the one to buy me the scarf. _And, here I was, wearing it... and loving every second of it. _I shook my head a bit to clear that thought, and brought my eyes away from him. "This is a lovely bar you've got here. Do you work here? Don't you get a bit lonely sitting up here away from everybody the way you do?"

When I looked up at him again, I felt my eyebrows draw together at the expression on his face. He seemed to be turning something over in his mind, something that he was struggling to say to me. I hoped that something was polite and not at all scary. But then he seemed to ease my mind.

"I enjoy observing people. I use my eyes more than my ears. I have lived that way for a very long time." As if to add more weight to that comment, his eyes focused on my mouth again. I got a weird sensation crawling over my skin. I had noticed last night the way he had looked at me, especially around my mouth area, really absorbing in the way words had rolled off the tip of my tongue and what my lips did. I wondered why, and I even considered asking him outright. I didn't want to be rude, though. Apparently I didn't need to ask, though; He explained to me next neutrally, while touching the lobe of his right ear closest to me, "I can't hear, you see. It is a condition I have suffered from, even when I was human. But I can... feel vibrations around me, and I can see."

I almost gasped, but I tried to keep my face straight. _He couldn't hear? He was deaf?_ You really couldn't tell at all with him... Suddenly, it seemed to slowly make sense. The reasons why his looking at me so intensely and concentratedly had probably only been because he was making real effort to lip-read every time I said something.

"So you can't hear my voice at all?" I asked, shocked.

"No, unfortunately not." He shook his head gently, but he didn't look upset over the fact. "But I have had a millennium studying body language. It is all I basically need to know."

I pursed my lips, considering silently for a moment how it must be for him. I couldn't even begin to empathize, but in some ways, I could. I had often wished something like that happened to me, so that I would no longer have to put up with hearing people's thoughts, despite not wanting to. I realized it was pointless after a while, and I had to learn to get over wishing I could be something I wasn't.

"Right. So that's why you really go to great lengths to look at my lips while I talk?" I blabbed, without thinking. I made a little hand gesture to my mouth also, just to make sure he really understood.

Catching me off-guard, he bent down and before I knew it, his lips were meeting mine and crushing against them. It occurred to me then that with my gesture, he must have assumed I was saying something far different from what I had meant. It was an enjoyable experience, regardless of his misinterpretation, no matter how brief and fleeting it was. Although I was twenty-three, it was quite embarrassing to admit that I hadn't ever been kissed by a man before. I had learned to keep my heart guarded during my years of education, out of fear that somebody would have somehow worked out about my differences and had turned on me in disgust. His lips against mine was about the most strangest feeling I had ever felt before; His lips were soft, cold, as they touched mine tentatively, where they stayed there for about a minute. Just as I parted my lips, wishing for it to go on, for it to deepen and dissolve into passion, he pulled back suddenly and stared right into my face.

I felt shaken when I noticed his fangs were out. There was a recognizable look of hunger for me in his expression. His pupils were enormously dilated, and those extended fangs of his glistened at me from under his top lip.

"That was what you wanted, yes?" he murmured, a bit on the hoarse side.

I didn't know where he got the idea from that I wanted him to kiss me, especially considering I didn't know anything at all about him, but finding my voice to tell him that was not easy. What the sneaky opportunist he was, that's for sure.

"No," I breathed, flabbergasted. "I think we got our wires mixed up just about then."

"Indeed, we must have." He looked apologetic, but his voice sounded anything but. And then, he added, really making me embarrassed, "I would say I'm sorry for that, but I'm truthfully not."

**Hoping you enjoyed this one and the twist? I'm not really sure if vampires can be deaf, but since they are fictional, anything can happen :P Thanks so much for reading. I promise Eric will be a lot more calculating like his on-screen self.**


	4. A Raid

**Hoping you enjoy this one! :-) **

**Chapter Four**

I started to feel like an awkward school-girl all over again. His straightforward confession over wanting to kiss me left me feeling both uneasy and flustered.

The vampire bartender crossed over towards us at Vampire Eric's call, half a minute later. Since he wasn't hiding behind the bar, I saw that he was wearing painfully tight leather pants. I couldn't see how his skin could even breathe down there. Apparently it couldn't, because he was walking with arched knees like a flamingo all the way over to us, with an awkward little grimace on his face.

"Yes, what can I get the pair of you?" he asked, as politely as he could. His voice failed on him, though, illustrating how impatient he was.

Eric either didn't care or he missed it completely. "Long Shadow, find me another chair, will you?" Eric said, and it was more like a demand than a request. "Also, get my companion a drink if she wishes."

I wasn't particularly in the mood for drinking, but I knew fair well that alcohol eased nerves a treat. The bartender looked at me inquiringly, and I settled on a gin and tonic, my usual drink of choice. He left us immediately, only to return with a chair under one arm. He set it down on the stage for Eric, and departed again to get my order. I tried to smile as thankfully as I could, despite my face feeling twitchy and hot, when he returned a beat later with my drink. He smiled back at me, showing his fangs, and then he said his farewells with that lisp again.

I could feel Eric's eyes on me, as he made himself comfortable in the chair on the left of me. I wasn't sure whether it was intentional of him or not, but he stretched out and crossed his ankles over my ankles, in a way that embarrassed me. I sipped my drink, feeling the blossoming warmth of the gin spreading over me and relaxing me slightly.

"Thank you for the drink," I said, just hoping to get some conversation going again. There was a big and meaningful silence on his end, so I shifted a bit in the chair to really look at him. His eyes were studying my face, like they tended to do. At least now I knew why. "So, you've been... unable to hear for a very long time?" I asked, my voice soft and hesitant. I wasn't sure whether it was a rude question to ask, but he hardly seemed to mind my asking.

"Yes, that is true. For a thousand." I felt my face close in on itself in surprise. A thousand? Did he mean a thousand-years?

"You're a thousand-years-old, you mean?"

He propped an elbow up on the armrest of his chair, resting his head on his right hand, while he looked me over with some amusement. "Yes. Why do you look so surprised?"

"Well, I look surprised, because I _am_ surprised," I admitted, with a little laugh. "I never knew it was possible?"

"Well, it is."

He wasn't a fan of long answers obviously. It took me a moment to figure out what to say next. "Why did you give me this scarf?" I asked, the question that has bugged me.

He rubbed around his chin with his fingers in contemplative thought. "You're wearing it, aren't you?"

"I know I am, and I like it very much. I'm just not sure... _why_ you bothered to do that for me?"

"It is not entirely unusual for a man to buy a woman gifts, especially when he is attempting to court her."

A hysterical giggle got stuck in my throat. "So that's what you're attempting to do?" God, it sounded so old-fashioned. "You're courting me?"

He stared at me for a moment, and I tried to stare back, for what it was worth. But when he leaned closer to me a smidgen, I felt something odd overcoming me, interfering with my goal. I felt strange little power tweaks hitting my brain. He was trying to do something to me, and I wasn't sure what. I looked down at the condensation rolling around my glass, before I peeked over at him again. It was as if he was counting the number of my eyelashes or something. I had never seen him look so intense before, and after a second, his expression changed into one of expectancy, and then, just as quickly disappointment. I was confused. Was he expecting me to do something? Or was he just waiting for me to speak again?

"What are you trying to do to me?" I laughed, a bit anxiously. It was sure obvious to me that he was attempting to do something. I wasn't sure what.

Startling the life out of me, he even went one further in reaching over and holding the nape of my neck. He turned my head a bit more so that I wasn't so much on an angle to him with my skull, and his eyes looked even deeper into my eyes to the point I wondered whether he had the capability to see straight through to the very back of my soul. I felt that weird little sensation again inside my brain, as I told myself sternly not to break his eye-contact. It was a little too close for comfort, however, and I found myself dying to just put some space between us. The tips of his fingers massaged the back of my scalp, while his eyes resumed looking into mine. I didn't see him blink while looking at me like that, not even once.

"What are you doing?" I asked again, a little more forcefully. I also moved my lips in exaggerated movement, just to get the question across more powerfully.

When that didn't seem enough for him, I deliberately pursed my lips and blew a gush of air into his face.

It worked wonders, and it seemed to immediately snap him out of whatever it was that he was attempting to do to me.

He untangled his fingers from my hair and sunk back into his chair. His eyes seemed to soften out of his trance, but the corners of his lips curled in confusion. I was under some impression that we had come to another misunderstanding. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around what he had just only attempted to do to me and his downcast reaction at not succeeding in doing whatever that something was.

In order to distract and ease myself somehow, I turned my gaze back to my gin and tonic and took a slow, needy sip as I opened up my mind, listening in to everybody. The Vampire Eric's silence was still there, quiet and comforting. But some of the human patrons in the bar I could hear very clearly.

Some were thinking wistfully about sex and vampires, which isn't all that surprising considering.

One man was thinking about something fishy, though. He was counting down the minutes, until something bad happened. A raid. There was an undercover cop car waiting outside in the parking lot, with two policemen waiting for the man to send the signal for them to come inside. I didn't know what that meant, or why they would even bother.

But then, with a bit more thought, I realize they probably did it a few times a month in the vampire bar, hoping to spring up unnoticed to catch out on vampires getting down with some risky business.

I wasn't that clued-in about politics, but I knew vampires feeding publicly on humans was not allowed. A vampire could get into a lot of trouble legally had they been caught feeding on a human out in the open.

But then, as I really focused and listened into the undercover cops thoughts a little more, I realized he had just only seen and witnessed exactly that; He had gone into the men's restrooms, and I got a very vivid mental image of that female vampire that had carded me at the door standing against the wall with a human man. She was feasting on his groin right as I sat, drinking away. The undercover cop was reeling in disgust over it.

I turned to Eric again, making sure he could see my mouth perfectly well underneath the lights. Now was definitely not a good time for another misunderstanding between us. "Uh, that female vampire who stands outside the entrance carding people has abandoned her position. She's inside the men's restroom feeding on a guy, and the tourist down there to our right wearing that blue baseball cap is an undercover cop. He has two cops outside stationed out in their undercover car, waiting for the signal to come in and catch her out. She could get arrested for that or something, right?"

Much to my relief, Eric seemed to take my warning very seriously. Without hesitation, he rose from his chair and disappeared for a few minutes. When he returned through the crowd, I saw he had the female vampire in tow. She was wiping the blood off her face hastily, while he did a few frantic gestures with his hands at her. She was sending them back just as quickly, making strange little signs with her hands. Sign-language was pretty impressive when vampires were doing it. Their hands moved so fast it was a blur.

He had gotten her at the right moment, because suddenly the doors burst open and the raid had begun. The two cops had helmets on their heads, as well as other various protective gear on. They also had their guns out and pointed. There was a lot of screaming from unsuspecting human tourists, and then the panic began. The Vampire Eric was back to me within the minute, and he took me tightly by the forearm, propelling me off the stage. Before we passed through a different door, I couldn't help but notice the bartender, Long Shadow, standing around motionless and gaping with his fangs out in shock. He caught my eye, and I did a little waving gesture to make him clear out of the bar. It seemed the decent thing to do, considering he had been real accommodating with me tonight.

I couldn't recall how I got there, but surely enough, I was soon sitting in a fancy sports car that had the top down, and the Vampire Eric was speeding away down the highway. I had a vain moment to regret doing my hair up and even bothering with it, because the wind ruined it all anyway and put it into a right mess. With a sudden jerk of the steering wheel, Eric had turned off the highway into a small strip of land to park his car. I could hear sirens in the distance, but I couldn't tell whether it was from the same cops or not. I was about to ask Eric if he could hear them too, but then it took me a belated moment to remember he couldn't. My heart was racing with excitement, and as he turned to look at me from in the driver's seat, I laughed breathlessly. I felt all shaken up.

Apparently he wasn't in as good of a mood as I was.

I started when he unbuckled his seat belt quickly and leaned over to grasp my chin in his hand tightly, squeezing down. It was the very last thing I was expecting of him, and I felt my eyes squint in pain. Evidently it was his intentions to pain me, though, because when I looked at him through narrowed eyes, he looked very intimidating. His fangs were out, too.

"How did you know?" he demanded, in a fierce voice that shook me. I almost got to fearing he was about to kill me, tear my head off my neck.

"Please, let me go," I begged, hating how pitifully scared I sounded. "You're hurting me, and it's hardly necessary of you to do that!"

"How did you know?" he asked again, a little more forcefully. His voice was a low growl that chilled me to the bone. "Are you working with the cops? Is that it?"

I made a funny noise; Half a pained yelp, half a stifled laugh at the absurdity of him accusing me of that. "Of course not, I just read that policeman's mind," I said desperately, working real hard to make my lips readable. It got the desired result, thank goodness; His hand loosened around my chin, until it felt more like a gentle hold than anything else. The pain left me instantly. His eyes widened in confusion. I was obviously going to have to fully explain. "I can hear thoughts. I'm telepathic. It's why I knew what was going to happen ahead of time." He was still looking confused, so I said it again, more slowly, "I'm telepathic, and I read minds."

His thumb lightly caressed my bottom lip as he stared at my mouth intently, deciphering my words. His brow creased. "You are telepathic?"

"Yes, I am," I admitted vehemently. "And trust me, I don't like people knowing it, either."

"Are you capable of hearing mine?" His thumb went between my lips as he asked it, stroking around the row of my top teeth. It only just made talking to him in a way he could see clearly all the more troublesome.

"No," I said, and I shook my head to make him extra clear of that. It was rather embarrassing trying to hold a conversation when his thumb was investigating my mouth. I got all slurry. "For some reason, I can't hear a vampires thoughts. There is only silence when I am around you."

Understanding slowly etched across his face, which told me he understood completely. Truth be told, I wasn't in the mood to repeat myself. Sending my head into a whirlwind, he leaned down to press his forehead against mine, and then his mouth located mine, and then we were kissing. I guess it was only the excitement of the evening that was doing it. I never thought of myself as the type of young woman who would allow a man to kiss her twice without really going out on any dates, but he was not an easy man to resist. While I had nothing to compare his kisses to, he was extremely good at it, and my brain went kind of... slow after a while. I tried to make a little noise of protest to tell him it wasn't such a smart idea, but realized yet again far too late that he probably wouldn't have heard it anyway. So making a more direct gesture, I moved back, maybe an inch or two in the seat. He knew then, with no doubts, which relieved me to no end. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy kissing him, it was just that I wanted to be responsible. I didn't even know the man, after all!

"I think it would be best if you dropped me off home now," I told him, very seriously. It seemed he had no qualms on that, because with my guidance, he did exactly that.


End file.
